Some changes afoot.

Comments

14 responses to “Some changes afoot.”

1. 

   Zaid

   January 14, 2009

   I think if he did that, Pelosi would say “k bai bai conyers”

2. 

   odinseye2k

   January 14, 2009

   At this point, I’m starting to conclude that Conyers has played the progressives for suckers and is just waiting for you to buy his next book.

   He’s got all the subpoena power he wants in his committee. He wants to hold hearings on this matter, he’s more than welcome to.

3. 

   Zaid

   January 14, 2009

   Update: John Conyers still “looking backward” at stuff like the rule of law

   http://www.3news.co.nz/News/InternationalNews/Democrats-push-for-investigation-of-criminal-Bush-adminstration/tabid/417/articleID/86903/cat/61/Default.aspx

4. 

   Zaid

   January 11, 2009

   I’m not that angry about it or most of the stuff on here, but I don’t see any reason not to call bullshit when I see it. If somebody tortured Obama’s wife to death or something I don’t think he’d be saying, “Aw, well, shucks let’s be postpartisan and look forward!” Shmuck!

5. 

   odinseye2k

   January 11, 2009

   On some level, Zaid, I almost have to commend you. You are our exhausted sense of rage.

6. 

   Zaid

   January 11, 2009

   http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/11/obama-special-prosecutor-torture/

   Interesting follow up on the special prosecutor question that ABC pushed onto Obama.

   It’s interesting to me how cavalier the President-elect is about war crimes.

7. 

   Zaid

   January 11, 2009

   I’m scared of seeing smarter-sounding bullshitters than the dumb-sounding Bush bullshitters in that we can’t do this if that happens.

8. 

   odinseye2k

   January 11, 2009

   The other part of the trick is that if the group doesn’t answer the top-ranked questions now, the press is probably going to start asking them, if nothing else to do the “Angry liberals hound Democrats” bit.

9. 

   odinseye2k

   January 11, 2009

   “I’ve long thought that the “open government” thing was more or less a blitz to make it seem like they care what people think but they don’t really care what people think. This isn’t changing my mind.”

   Well, the Internet is going to be a channel just like phones, email, direct letters, and everything else. The better representatives will go and solicit input, but at the end of the day, they have to synthesize it into some combination of what they feel is best and what their constituents really want (not necessarily what they ask for).

   The main difference I can see with the Internet is that everyone can see what everyone else wrote and see when the representative is mis-representing the zeitgeist or not. In that way, I see an improvement.

   Another big difference is (hopefully when they post more bills and such online) non-experts can benefit from a wide range of expert analysis, rather than a few pre-selected outlets.

10. 

    Mouth of the South

    January 11, 2009

    “Will you consider legalizing cannabis/marijuana/hemp so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a multi-billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?”—DJ C, Chicago, IL

    Open for Questions Response, 12/15/08: “President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana.”

11. 

    Zaid

    January 11, 2009

    “Questions are asked, then they are answered. Not sure what else there is to it.”

    People put a lot of effort into getting the questions ranked up there and getting people to vote, and the answers they give were completely ridiculous. It’s like Gibbs decided to give all trite answers on a lunch break, and it took weeks for them to answer them. Then, they cherrypick which ones they want to answer, instead of answering the highest ranked ones.

    I’ve long thought that the “open government” thing was more or less a blitz to make it seem like they care what people think but they don’t really care what people think. This isn’t changing my mind.

12. 

    odinseye2k

    January 10, 2009

    I would like to see a few more answered, but what are you thinking needs to be added?

    Questions are asked, then they are answered. Not sure what else there is to it.

13. 

    Zaid

    January 10, 2009

    http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/open_for_questions_round_2_response/

    Does anyone else thinks this sucks?

    If that’s open government, lol.

14. 

    Zaid

    January 9, 2009

    Sirota and I are Facebook friends and ideological soulmates. Rock on.